Health care is an important issue for parents, especially parents with newborns. What do you do if you find yourself without health care coverage?

When our son was first born, my husband retired from the military and we were without insurance for several months until his new civilian job picked up the coverage. The government claimed he didn?t have enough active duty time to qualify for health coverage after his retirement, and so we were left scrambling for coverage for our newborn.

I did check into purchasing an individual insurance policy for just our baby, which we tried to do. I say tried because he had a birthmark over his eye at birth, and the insurance agency refused to cover us because the birthmark might cause complications and require surgery (note, the birthmark is now gone). They listed the birthmark as a pre-existing condition.

If a simple birthmark can disqualify an otherwise healthy child, I wondered what we would do. Who exactly qualified for private insurance?

While I continued to check our options, I found out that the local health department provided free shots for our child and also that check ups could be scheduled with a private health clinic in our area. One of the local churches had a doctor who volunteered to do well baby check ups as well.

But what about if our child became sick and needed more than simple care? I found out that some doctors will accept self paying patients and, if asked, will even give a discount. Some doctors do not wish to see self paying patients either, so you may have to call around.

In some states, children under 1 year old regardless of income can qualify for Medicaid from the state. In other states, only children who meet certain guidelines are eligible. In some states, working parents who can not afford or are not offered health coverage by their employer can sign up for low cost insurance subsidized by the state. Again, depending up on the state you live in and how the program is funded, this may be offered to all children, or there may be a waiting list.

In order to find out what is available in your state and municipality, you can look in the blue pages of your phone book (if you live in the United States) for phone numbers to call for information on health care issues.

In our case, we were able to get by without any major issues until my husband?s employer offered us coverage. A week later, our previously healthy infant son had his first asthma attack, which ended up requiring a hospital stay and an ambulance ride to the hospital.

I?d encourage all parents who are without health care for their children to spend the time(and it does require a significant time investment) to make some phone calls and research the options available to your family. While we all hope that our children will be healthy and that they won?t have any medical issues, you just never know what might happen in the future. It?s best to be prepared and to be covered!